


Tokyo Kai

by joisbishmyoga



Category: Kingdom Hearts, 幽☆遊☆白書 | YuYu Hakusho: Ghost Files
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 20:43:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5600200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joisbishmyoga/pseuds/joisbishmyoga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world had a strange layered look to it, a mirage of desert sands mixing with black storm clouds boiling over a sprawling metropolitan seaport. It also, and this was what had screamed at Sora's heart so that he'd nearly blown out the Gummi ship's rockets racing here, was starting to crack at the seams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

  
The world had a strange layered look to it, a mirage of desert sands mixing with black storm clouds boiling over a sprawling metropolitan seaport. It also, and this was what had screamed at Sora's heart so that he'd nearly blown out the Gummi ship's rockets racing here, was starting to crack at the seams.  
  
"Brace yourselves!" Sora yelled, smashing a half-gloved hand down--  
  
"Wait!" Donald squawked. "My spell--!"  
  
\--on the teleport button.  
  
Sora landed hard in a burst of blinding white, Keyblade splitting a blast of pure Light aimed right at him. Darkness boiled away just behind Sora's shoulders, a flash of pink Hearts out of the corner of his eye as he spun and cut down a swath of Shadows. He'd hit in the middle of a pool of them--  
  
Pain flared through his legs, the too-familiar scrabble of Shadow claws and a gaping maw climbing for Sora's heart. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he'd landed right on it!  
  
Another blast of Light cut between Sora's knees. Hearts streamed freely upwards, one bumping against Sora's nose, and vanished.  
  
"Dammit, kid, what the hell are you doing?!"  
  
Sora snapped back around at the yell. The native was a boy not much older than Sora, black hair slicked against his head and fury in his eyes. His glare snapped over to Donald and Goofy. "'Porting into the middle of a fight? Showing up without even an illusion? At least the kid looks human enough, but you two are gonna get --" Dark eyes landed on the Keyblade, and the native's voice stuttered to a halt. "--shot. _Fuck_."  
  
Sora jammed the Keyblade behind his back and sent it away, feeling the blood rush into his own face as he tried on a grin for size. It didn't fit very well. Probably because Donald was going to _kill_ him for not waiting for the changing spell, and for blowing their cover this fast.  
  
"This has happened before," the native groaned, before pelting off down the street.  
  
"Wait!" Sora yelled, finding himself in pursuit before he'd actually thought to run. _What_ had happened before?  
  
The pavement shuddered under Sora's feet, sending dark wisps of dust into the air, then heaved, tossing the native backwards to skid to a halt nearly under Sora's shoes. Which, fortunately, kept the other boy from losing his head to a Heartless' massive black boat oar.  
  
A second Heartless, Shadow-faced under a tattered, dark pink kimono and hood, arced over the uplifted rubble. It leapt off the oar it was using like a witch's broom, whacking the emblemed paddle down to crack through the street where Sora had just been standing.  
  
"Sora!" Donald and Goofy yelled in stereo. More of the same new Heartless swarmed towards them in the first pair's wake. Goofy dragged the native upright as an oar screeched against Metal Chocobo, sending up sparks.  
  
Yellow eyes burned in the split second before Sora twisted the Keyblade up under its guard. A clawed hand raked over his chest, oar clipping his ear, and hearts streamed upwards from the fading robe's tatters.  
  
The native's strange magic blasted out the Heartless at the top of the rubble. Sora pivoted, 'blade glowing from Cura and scything through another line of Shadows, and spotted Goofy smashing the last Shadow's face in with his shield.  
  
Sora let Metal Chocobo's tip thud against the ground. At least the native could take care of himself, but... "Let us help you," he said anyway.  
  
"Che," the guy grumbled. "Just don't get in the way."  
  
Sora knew a grateful thanks when he heard one. Even if it wasn't in words.  
  
-0-0-0  
  
"So where are we going?" Sora yelled a few blocks and several fights later.  
  
" _Last_ time this happened-- _Rei Gun!_ " Three Ferrygirls and part of a small building blew up. "I got swarmed," Sora heard the 'killed' hiding under that word, "keeping these little fuckers off a friend of mine. If he doesn't remember his damned roses can get eaten..."  
  
That made absolutely _zero_ sense, but then again Sora didn't know the rules of this world. "So we're going to find him?"  
  
"How do we know where to look?" Donald asked.  
  
"We're just following Yuusuke's heart," Goofy answered, before Yuusuke could open his mouth.  
  
Donald's reply vanished under an earsplitting crack. The street split down the middle, a gap as wide as Sora's finger opening up from the direction they were going. Far ahead, where the road made a sharp turn, a building over the crack crumpled in on itself with a long, drawn-out rumble. Dust billowed out over Sora and his friends, even as they leapt and climbed over sliding heaps of rubble.  
  
They crested the former building to find a broad park at the edge of what looked almost like a sinkhole, and more fissures in the ground spewing smoking Darkness. This side held the remains of a garden; Sora could still tell that there'd been gravel beds and some sort of pond, its bridge fallen across stepping stones. Past that, a line of trees framed the ruin of skyscrapers, leaning drunkenly against each other.  
  
"Come on!" Yuusuke yelled, skidding down the steep slope. "He's gone where there's weapons!"  
  
There was an armory in a _park?_ ... Well, stranger things had happened, Sora thought, leaping to follow. Small pebbles bounced off his head as Donald and Goofy did the same.  
  
Behind the trees, a woman's scream nearly vanished under the dying screech of a Darkball, hearts streaming upwards. They burst through to a clearing in time to see another teenager, a redhead, fall flat on the woman clinging to his back.  
  
The woman shoved, rolling them over. "Shuiichi!" The boy shuddered under her hands, pupils dilated to pinpricks in his yellow eyes, oblivious to the Shadows puddling around them. "Shuiichi!"  
  
" _Rei Gun!_ " Yuusuke blasted away the Shadows and fell next to the redhead. His hand landed on the woman's shoulder. "Minamino-san!"  
  
She flicked wild eyes up to him. "Urameshi-kun--" That gaze passed him, landing on Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and she choked on another scream.  
  
"They're okay!" Yuusuke said hastily. "They're good guys, they're here to help--"  
  
Sora raised the Keyblade, and the woman blanched white. _Sorry_ , he thought, wincing in apology as he reached for a Cura. "Heal!" Shuiichi's eyes faded to green and fell shut as he went limp. Unconscious, Sora guessed, spotting the dark smudge of bruises creeping out from under Shuiichi's Mandarin collar: the boy needed a stronger spell. "Heal!"  
  
The bruising vanished, and the redhead stirred, one hand groping for his head. "Kaasan...?"  
  
"Kurama," she whispered, stunned.  
  
The redhead's eyes shot open, landing right on Yuusuke, stricken.  
  
Yuusuke held up two hands. "Whoa, don't look at me. I didn't say a thing!"  
  
"You..." She curled slim hands around -- Kurama, Shuiichi, Sora had _no_ idea which -- her son, tugging him over to face her. "Last time, after Urameshi-san vanished... You shifted into the youko," she said softly.  
  
Kurama paled.  
  
Sora couldn't help blurting, "What's a youko?"  
  
Green eyes snapped to him, and Kurama jerked partly upright. "Who are--?"  
  
"I'm Sora!" Sora said, grinning as he slung the Keyblade over his shoulder. "These are Donald and Goofy."  
  
"I--" Kurama's eyes landed on Metal Chocobo, and he choked. "--oh. _Oh._ Oh Inari..."  
  
Okay, what was _with_ this world and people going all weird when they saw the Keyblade?  
  
"What?" Yuusuke asked sharply.  
  
"I remember now," Kurama murmured, hands clenching a few times on his mother's, throat working. Then his expression flattened out and he met Yuusuke's eyes steadily. "Do you recall what happened after those Shadows swarmed you?"  
  
Yuusuke coughed. "Er. Well." Scrubbing a fist roughly over his nose, he added, "Yeah. I was so fu--" a quick glance at Sora, "--frikkin' _hungry_..."  
  
Sora's stomach twisted in sympathy. Hungry. Lonely. _Need_ , like all the universe was empty and he was its only mouth. But the only food was past polished stone and empty air, useless wisps of Darkness trailing between electricity and empty cages... something else was going to eat it first and they were _his_... Sora shook the memory away. He didn't need to remember that to put the Heartless out of their misery.  
  
"--So," Yuusuke finished. "Yeah. Thanks."  
  
"You're welcome," Kurama replied automatically. His stare remained perfectly level, flickering almost imperceptibly to include Sora. "I don't know how much you noticed during our fight...?" he prompted. Yuusuke shrugged, and Kurama let it pass. "Without my memory of being Heartless, I didn't realize... my weapons work because I connect my heart to theirs. Unfortunately, using a weapon with a heart, against beings that only wish to _eat_ hearts..."  
  
Sora bit his lip. That wouldn't work so well.  
  
"Kinda noticed the shock there, yeah," Yuusuke muttered warily.  
  
"It's not only the shock," Kurama pointed out, voice cuttingly flat. "It's that every time I lose a weapon's heart, it's like the Heartless take a bite out of mine." Slim fingers lifted, tugging frog buttons free, and Kurama's Chinese tunic fell open to reveal long, dark streaks.  
  
Ice trickled down Sora's spine. The bruising... he'd thought it was bruising before, like soot smudged under Kurama's collar, but it wasn't. Ropy gaps of emptiness, like a starless night -- like a _Shadow Heartless_ \-- cut narrow strips across an otherwise ordinary, muscled chest.  
  
"I have only a few battles before I lose it completely," Kurama told them simply. "Again." His mother wrapped scarred arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder, and he looked down, something in his eyes breaking. "Kaasan..."  
  
She said something muffled into his shirt and thumped a fist against his other shoulder.  
  
"But..." He cupped hands around her upper arms, shifting her back enough to look shamefully into her face. "Kaasan, I..."  
  
"Then use another weapon," she told him. "Surely you can think of something that won't put its Heart out for these creatures to eat."  
  
Kurama's jaw dropped. "I..." He paused, eyes going distant, considering. "I... hm. That's... actually not a bad idea." He glanced sheepishly at Yuusuke. "I'm too used to my Rose Whip."  
  
"Get unused," Donald snapped. "Fast."  
  
A quelling glare shut Donald up, and Kurama pushed himself to his feet, pulling his mother with him. He then took a few steps back from her, glancing around at the ground to estimate distance. "I think... yes. This should do." He swept a hand through his hair, bringing out a fresh rose.  
  
Sora thought, _That's not going to--  
  
"Fuuka Enbu Jin_ ," Kurama murmured, crushing the blossom in his hands. A cloud of petals swirled around him, pretty and pink and gouging lines in the pavement deep enough for Sora to stick a finger in.  
  
\-- _wow._  
  
Kurama offered a small smile as the petals vanished into his sash. "It's a bit of a drain, but I think this'll work. Let's go, then," he added, turning away.  
  
Sora got control over his voice again. "Go where?"  
  
"To stop the end of the world," Kurama replied simply, glancing back over his shoulder. "I assumed that's why you're here."  
  
-0-0-0  
  
After several more fights, covering the span of three blocks, Sora's group had gathered two of the emblemed Heartless oars. It turned out that if someone was using a weapon with absolutely no magical power -- like Shiori's half-rusted piece of steel rebar -- and knocked the items loose before Sora destroyed the Heartless owners, the items had a better chance of surviving intact. So with Kurama and his mother riding a butterfly-winged plant, they'd settled two passengers apiece on the oars and were flying fast towards the epicenter of the ruined part of the city.  
  
"Do you really think this guy's opening the world to Darkness?" Sora shouted over his shoulder at Yuusuke.  
  
Yuusuke's grip on Sora's waist tightened, just enough to make Sora grunt and the oar waver. "Not on purpose," he shouted back, shoving down against Sora's back as Donald and Goofy corkscrewed over them with a doppler-effect yell. When the echoes faded, he continued, "But with what Kurama said about last time? Wouldn't take much to make him do it again."  
  
Sora adjusted his grip on the oar handle. Battles were somehow easier than flying this thing... yeah, he broke a sweat, but most worlds were cool, or cold, or dry, and wicked away the heat of battle before he could reach the next one. This world's climate was like Destiny Island, and only got muggier the longer the day lasted.  
  
It was the heat and the uncooperative Heartless oar making him sweat, really. Not knowing that he might be too late to save someone's friend and another world.  
  
They passed over half a skyscraper into an empty gap, a glassy crater easily the size of a city block. The crater floor wavered, Darkness dancing like flames in Sora's vision. He rubbed his eyes, blinked, and -- when the crater didn't vanish like a mirage -- whistled.  
  
"I think we're here," Yuusuke said.  
  
Kurama seemed to agree; he swooped past them, gesturing towards the center of the crater. Sora followed, pulling ahead quickly; the oars were a little faster than Kurama's butterfly thing. If he squinted, he thought he could see something tiny pulsing blue between the licking flickers of Darkness.  
  
The air, muggy and hot, buffeted Sora's face in waves. He licked chapped lips and scrubbed a hand over his gritty eyes, blinking hard. Then he blinked again. Down below, that wasn't Darkness at all: fire black as coal pulled at his vision.  
  
"Pull up!" Yuusuke caught Sora's wrists, yanked back, and sent them skittering twenty feet back up to cooler air.  
  
"What--"  
  
"Hellfire," Yuusuke answered. "We go much farther we'll be having roast Sora for lunch."  
  
Sora stared over his shoulder at Yuusuke for a moment, then turned back to the blasted landscape with a sinking feeling. "How can they be alive in that?" he whispered.  
  
He hadn't meant for Yuusuke to hear, but the other boy shrugged against his back. "They're demons." Sora's head whipped back around. "Fire and ice magic. Little hellfire's a bad day for 'em, not much worse."  
  
Ooooookay. Though considering the worlds had a manic god of death, and a psychotic one-winged angel... yeah, friendly demons, okay, why not. That wasn't getting Sora any closer to actually meeting them, though.  
  
Then again... fire was fire, right? Sora raised his Keyblade, aimed, and fired. "Deep Freeze!"  
  
Cool air gusted over his face, and a small patch of the fires below hissed furiously and died out. A very small patch: Sora figured he could just about lay down in it, but Goofy would probably get singed.  
  
... _Make that burnt_ , he thought, as the surrounding fires surged back over the glassy rock.  
  
Yuusuke nudged him. "Up," he murmured, chin twitching against Sora's hair in illustration. Sora glanced up to see Kurama climbing higher in the sky and gliding ahead. "You can shoot that freeze straight down okay, right? Good range?"  
  
Sora shrugged. "Never tried."  
  
"Try now."  
  
Sora nudged the oar higher, circling to hover over the flickering point of blue on the ground far below. He should have enough magic for Blizzaga... Hovering next to Kurama, he took careful aim, and fired. "Deep Freeze!"  
  
Ice blasted at the ground, and Kurama's arm snapped out, a vine following the ice.  
  
Far below, the black fires faded away in a widening circle, centered on two ant-like specks, pale faces upturned at the party. Sora's face went cold, the temperature plunging to bearable levels, and he sucked in the newly-breathable air.  
  
Kurama let the vine fall and banked gently towards the ground in a wide spiral. Sora let his oar sink in the redhead's wake, until they touched down and Yuusuke hopped off with a wave and a cheerful "Hiei! Yukina!"  
  
A teal-haired girl in torn kimono beamed up at the group, hands falling away from her companion's bicep as she bowed slightly. In contrast, the spiky-haired boy behind her just folded his arms, ignoring the bloody bandages crisscrossing his chest and arms. His eyes flicked consideringly over Donald and Goofy, then pinned themselves inexplicably to Sora.  
  
That one was probably Hiei.  
  
Sora offered him a friendly grin -- nice demon, no opening the world to Darkness anymore, okay? -- and ducked in past Shiori to find that penetrating stare meeting him eye-to-eye.  
  
"Wow, I thought I'd never meet someone as short as me!" Sora blurted.  
  
Hiei's eyes flew wide, jaw almost slackening in shock for a split second. Then his gaze flicked to Donald, and pointedly returned to Sora.  
  
"Someone human," Sora corrected. "Er. Human-shaped." The stare didn't soften in the slightest. "I should shut up now, huh."  
  
Hiei raised an eyebrow and smirked. Then promptly almost got knocked onto Sora as Yuusuke clapped him across the back.  
  
"Hiei, this is Sora," Yuusuke said, grinning fiercely. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "That's Donald and Goofy. If you promise not to flip out on us, he'll do a cool magic trick."  
  
That earned Yuusuke a sidelong glare. "This is no time for tricks," Hiei growled, in a surprisingly deep voice.  
  
"Gotta be done." Without another word, Yuusuke dug his hand into dark, spiky locks, turning Hiei's head two inches around and down to face the Keyblade.  
  
Hiei went distinctly green, and Sora took a hasty step back in case the demon boy was about to be sick.  
  
"Hey," Yuusuke said, giving Hiei's head a shake. "She's okay. Wanna cut it out now?"  
  
Violet flickered in Hiei's eyes as he jerked out from under Yuusuke's grip, leaving a few strands of hair in Yuusuke's fist. But he didn't look like he was about to be sick anymore.  
  
The weight of Darkness in the air started to lift, lingering black fires on the horizon winking out one by one. Sora breathed a sigh of relief, feeling ten times lighter -- no pun intended -- and hearing others echoing the sigh... a sigh which cut off abruptly. A diamond-shaped wedge seemed to sprout from the glassy ground between Sora's feet, sharp-edged-- a blade! And from the angle...  
  
Sora's head snapped up to see Yukina clutching at her chest. A soft, bubbly sound came from her throat--  
  
"Yukina!" Movement out of the corner of Sora's eye; Kurama catching Hiei around the chest in a vice grip.  
  
Streamers of Darkness, icy cold, billowed out from the girl. Sora's vision shook with power, the ground rumbling under his feet as all the Darkness in the world seemed to flow invisibly past Sora and into the girl, pooling within and around her. She vanished quickly into the growing Dark globe; Sora skittered back as it grew to a horrifying height--  
  
Darkness shattered.  
  
A massive stone tower stood three stories tall, long ropes of stonework curling out from the bottom. Halfway up, over the Heartless emblem, Sora caught a glimpse of a barred window and a Shadow's non-face; the roof was lost in a swirl of storm clouds.  
  
Shit. At least he already had the Keyblade out. Sora leapt into battle--  
  
Metal Chocobo clanged against a slim katana, sparks flying up into Sora's face. The eyes glowering at him over the blade were deep red and shifting fast to purple, the whites going blood-red in a green face--  
  
Hiei hissed at Sora as his headband burned away, a third eye blazing fury under encroaching Darkness--  
  
"Hiei!" Kurama and Yuusuke shouted.  
  
One of the tower's long stone roots swept out, slamming Sora away. He coughed, gasping at air, and shoved himself up just in time to see bars clang shut behind a green, many-eyed Hiei. The room inside the tower went dark.  
  
"Uh, guys?" Goofy sounded nervous. "Just how strong a heart did that girl have?"  
  
Yuusuke bit his lip, but Kurama flatly answered, "She survived years of torture."  
  
And she'd been smiling and kind, in the few minutes Sora had met her in. Which meant...  
  
"Gawrsh. That explains a lot."  
  
... really. strong. Heart. And an equally strong Heartless. Plus Hiei, who'd broken the world once already...  
  
Lightning shot down from the tower's clouds. Sora leapt back, Donald squawking beside him. Patches of ice spread where the lightning hit. Definitely did not want to get hit by that, Sora thought. He'd have to save his magic to keep Firaga at the ready. Physical fight then, whaling away at the Heartless with the Keyblade, good thing Metal Chocobo was the biggest and heaviest-hitting of the Keyblade's forms -- the tower gathered in on itself, stone roots pulling close -- here it came!  
  
The giant Heartless leapt over Sora and darted off with surprising speed.  
  
Sora blinked. "What?" he blurted. No fight? But... "They're supposed to attack _me_!" Heartless had this thing about Keyblade Masters, thought they were scary tasty treats or something.  
  
"Maybe there's someone else here they want to eat first?" Goofy ventured.  
  
Donald whacked Goofy with his magic staff. "That's stupid!" he snapped. "Heartless don't have the brains to think that!"  
  
"But they're still running away."  
  
"They're just scared of Sora," Donald explained.  
  
Goofy paused. "Didn't you just say they weren't that smart...?"  
  
"Nevermind that!" Donald said. "They're getting away!"  
  
Sora nodded sharply. "Let's go!" He grabbed the Heartless oar, vaguely catching a glimpse of Kurama brushing a quick kiss over his mother's cheek, a too-low murmur, then the redhead jumped up behind him and they took off.  
  
It wasn't difficult at all to track Yukina and Hiei's Heartless. Though the world was cracking yet again, buildings collapsing in on themselves and covering the path of destruction the Heartless tower would've left, broad patches of ice marked a relatively straight trail through the ruins.  
  
"Sora-kun."  
  
Sora glanced over his shoulder, catching serious green eyes. "Yeah?"  
  
Kurama barely paused, just long enough that Sora knew he'd changed whatever he was about to say. "When I tell you to kill me--" The air caught in Sora's throat. "--drop the fight and do it."  
  
"But--!" Kurama's pupils went cat-shaped for a moment, Darkness flickering across bright green, and Sora swallowed. He was already facing two massively powerful Heartless, even if he had no idea what Hiei's was. He didn't need a third popping up at his back. "It won't happen," he said anyway, grinning with confidence he didn't feel.  
  
Something exploded up ahead in a shower of golden light.  
  
"I think," Kurama said tightly, "we've found what Yukina wants more than a Keyblade Master." His fingers twitched against Sora's waist, but he didn't need to say anything else: they crested a rise, and found the remnants of a freeway interchange. The tower was caught where one bridge passed over the road, its upper stories whaling away at a second, higher bridge cutting across at an angle. The higher bridge teamed with swarming Shadows, circling a lone human figure with a glowing orange blade like a lightsaber.  
  
In a swirl and a burst of pink Hearts, the man blasted through the pack of Shadows and leapt at the face of the tower, only to miss when the edge of the broken road crumbled under his feet. He landed in a heap on the lower bridge, but jabbed heroically at the tower -- the blade growing to land a decent hit -- before bothering to scramble to his feet.  
  
Behind the tower, a whipcord of stone lashed out.  
  
" _Fuuka Enbu Jin!_ "  
  
Sora raced after Kurama's deadly rose petals, ducking rocks broken from the tower's stone root, then the root itself, landing hard next to the new person.  
  
There was no time to catch more than a glimpse of orange hair and torn blue fabric; Kurama sent another blast of rose petals up at the tower's latticed window, and Sora leapt to follow, Metal Chocobo gouging a wide line across the stones a story below.  
  
" _Hey!_ " The man yelled as Sora landed, leaping back as soon as his feet hit the asphalt-- the next couple of words vanished under the crack of thunder, lightning blasting ice just in front of Sora. "--ere and steal my fight, _geez_ Kurama--"  
  
The tower shook itself, dozens of little yellow eyes winking open behind the latticework. "Sorry, Kuwabara-kun," Kurama said hastily, "but this is a bit much to fight alone--" The window burst open, one-eyed Shadows boiling out like waves of frothy ink.  
  
After that, time vanished into the flurry of battle. Cut down the Shadows, dodge the tower's swipes one-two, jump back from ice lightning; aim at black and yellow and stone, duck away from pink and golden-bright and blue whenever they flashed in the corners of Sora's vision. Cast Cura when he heard Donald or Goofy's familiar yelps of pain.  
  
Every few hits, Sora managed to score on the tower itself, then the yellow eyes appeared inside the darkened high room, and the Shadows boiled out again.  
  
A good hit sent Donald skidding across the asphalt almost into Sora's feet. The wizard promptly shoved himself up, squawking in fury. "How many hearts did that Yukina girl _have_?!" he yelled.  
  
In the middle of the swarm, Kuwabara's head snapped around, eyes wide with horror. "Yu--?" He lurched foward.  
  
" _Kuwabara_!" Kurama yelled.  
  
Which was when Sora recognized the blackened claws pointing out of Kuwabara's chest. The Shadow tore free, pink glowing from between its talons.  
  
Sora's stomach lurched, as Darkness started to swirl up around the man. Kuwabara's heart. One stupid, stupid moment-- of course Kuwabara would've known Yukina, wouldn't have known he was fighting what was left of her--  
  
Kuwabara's gaze slid to the Shadow clutching his heart. "Hiei..." he rasped out, almost fondly. "You little bastard..."  
  
Movement in the corner of Sora's vision; Kurama stepped forward, face open and vulnerable. "Kuwabara..."  
  
Kuwabara gave the redhead a pained smirk. "Guess what," he whispered. Under the slow swirls of Darkness, his skin began to glow. "I'm finally gonna beat the shrimp."  
  
"Wha--" Kurama jerked back, spun and tackled Sora. "Watch out!"  
  
Pure Light blasted through Sora's head.  
  
-0-0-0  
  
Silence.  
  
-0-0-0  
  
_"Hey. Kid."  
  
Sora blinked. Once. Twice. Nothing but white, as far as the eye could see. Slowly, he pushed himself up. Or over. In some vague direction that got him feeling like he was upright instead of having his face half-buried in cloudlike light.  
  
"I loved her, you know."  
  
Now that voice was familiar. Sora turned, finding Kuwabara standing nearby, hands tucked in his pockets. The man looked sad, despite his gentle smile.  
  
"She wouldn't have wanted to live Heartless. Wouldn't have wanted anyone hurt because of her." Kuwabara shrugged. "So. I guess I just wanted to make sure you didn't blame yourself or something."  
  
"I..." It was just like Donald requiring smiles; just someone wanting to make sure Sora was okay. "I won't. I promise."  
  
Kuwabara grinned. "Good. Hey, tell Kurama-- our hearts are gonna be safe now, locked up all tight. He can take that as a challenge."_  
  
-0-0-0  
  
When Sora woke up, all the Heartless were gone. Not just the giant tower and its swarming Shadows, but all of them: he couldn't feel a single one, though he could feel the itch of the world mending itself at the cracks, Darkness ebbing away like water down a drain.  
  
Kurama's eyes went bright when Sora relayed Kuwabara's last message, making Sora sure that the redhead wouldn't stay to rebuild. Not while there were lost hearts to find. Though he wasn't entirely sure how Kurama would go about restoring his friends' bodies too...  
  



	2. Chapter 2

"Get back our _hearts_?" the white-haired Nobody hissed. "Why would I want to go back to being that simpering moron? Oh, _aniki_ ," she mocked, cooing up at her gray-haired twin, "stop, don't kill that man who tortured me for years! My _poor_ brother, he must be so _scared_..." Pale red eyes flashed, then she spun on one bare heel to shove past the two expressionless men behind her. "Fuck that!"  
  
Xigbar smirked. "Mayhem and mass destruction."  
  
The girl stopped in her tracks, elbow half-buried in the taller man's hip. Slowly, she turned back around. "We're listening."


	3. postscripts

Postscript:  
  
"Bitch kicked you outta bed again, huh?"  
  
Axel could've shaved on the blade that kissed the pulse in his neck. That was the problem with magic swords; you didn't have to actually be wearing anything to draw, and Heixi had _no_ sense of humor. But, Axel thought, curling around the sword like a cat scent-marking a favorite person so he could look down, it certainly had its benefits.  
  
"C'mon in. Hope your crazier half doesn't mind if I let you recover a bit before I take you up on that offer."  
  
Aaaaand there was the shave again.  
  
  
-0-0-0

  
  
Postscript 2:  
  
Heixi had a good sense of hierarchy. At the top was Nyaxuki. Then came Xumazak, because sometimes Nyaxuki had to go off and kill something, and she invariably told Heixi to stay with the rough-faced Nobody from their world.  
  
That was good, because Xumazak wasn't frivolous like certain Nobodies Heixi could name, nor did he have his laserlike attention stuck on his former heart. Which was also unlike certain Nobodies Heixi could name, who he had to make his offer to after Xumazak. It was only polite. Besides, Nyaxuki had said the others, plural, in the castle.  
  
Heixi took the necessary single step onto the open rooftop.  
  
"For the last time, no." Superior's eyes were pinned to the moon as always. "And put on some clothes," he ordered uselessly, also as always.  
  
Heixi left.  
  


-0-0-0  
  
  
Postscript 3:  
  
Nyaxuki trailed sharp little nails lightly along Heixi's face as Superior droned on about something. Probably his moon and the grand quest, some mission that would require subtlety and tact and _absolutely no indiscriminate killing I mean it fourteens_. Which meant that Nyaxuki and Heixi wouldn't be going, so it wasn't important.  
  
What was important was that Nyaxuki was lolling over Heixi's lap like a well-fed cat, that there wasn't so much as a bruise on her bare calves or feet... that her nails were circling in thin, vertical loops over his cheeks.  
  
He caught her wrist before she could begin clawing at his tear track. "Superior," he interrupted. "Send us out."  
  


-0-0-0  
  
  
Postscript 4:  
  
" _Tears of Grief_!" the white-haired Nobody girl shouted, teeth bared in a crazed grin. A veritable blizzard of tiny, gleaming blades materialized around Sora, razor edges flashing in the moonlight.  
  
He had just enough time to think _This is going to hur_ t.

  
-0-0-0  
  
  
Postscript 4.5:  
  
Sora quietly thanked Donald for the Curaga, letting his Keyblade thunk against the ground instead of spinning it jauntily as usual. The Nobody girl, Nyaxuki, lay sprawled in a heap of black coat and white hair across the pockmarked floor... and without that wild grin across her face, she looked exactly like that gentle healer demoness from Tokyo Kai.  
  
Yukina's Heartless had been a nasty battle. It was somehow unsurprising that her Nobody was worse.  
  
Something flickered across Sora's vision, and Nyaxuki vanished. Sora jerked his head up in time to see -- _Riku_ , but no, the hair was a much darker gray -- a boy in the exitway to the room, tucking his Organization coat around the girl he'd set gently against the wall. Under the coat, the boy wore a too-familiar outfit, though the last time Sora had seen it the sleeveless top had been blue, not red.  
  
The boy turned, pale red eyes gazing at Sora, and drew a hooked blade out of thin air in a burst of white fire. "You're not done yet," Hiei's Nobody informed him, blandly.  
  
 _Shit_.

**Author's Note:**

> Written 2009, reposted off my livejournal.
> 
> Podfic available! http://archiveofourown.org/works/5386916


End file.
